Evil Spells

Evil Spells

Dev Shah from Florida spelled "psammophile" correctly to become the 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, beating Charlotte Walsh from Virginia.

Two spellers were eliminated in Round 9, when 11-year-old Sarah Fernandes from Nebraska was marked incorrect on "leguleian" and Pranav Anandh from Pennsylvania on "querken."In Round 10, which is a word-meaning round, Tarini Nandakumar from Texas was out on "chthonic."

Arth Dalsania from California was eliminated on "katuka," Dhruv Subramanian from California on "crenel," Vikrant Chintanaboina from California on "pataca," and Aryan Khedkar from Michigan on "pharetrone."

Shradha Rachamreddy from California missed "orle" in the 13th round, before Surya Kapu spelled "kelep" incorrectly to leave Shah and Charlotte Walsh from Virginia as the final two competitors of 2023.

Kapu, an eighth-grader in his last year of eligibility, ranked fifth in 2022. This year, his correctly spelled words included "nunnari" and "Bloemfontein" on his way to finishing tied for third.

Walsh spelled "daviely" incorrectly before Shah spelled his final word, making her the 2023 runner-up and the winner of $25,000. Her 13 correctly spelled words throughout the competition included "akuammine," "collembolous," "rescissible" and "sorge."

Certainly no one wants to make any generalization here but there is a coincidence that might be noticeable; many of these names may be of Indian origin. Now for the really bad news: Since 1999, the children of immigrants from South Asia have dominated the world's most prestigious spelling bee. In our belief in equality of outcome, this is more than disturbing, this is virtual treason. 

What is going on? What circumstances or series of circumstances has unfairly created this unnatural disparity? We know this kind of imbalance implies injustice. But something of this scope has to be more than simple bigotry. It has to be a conspiracy.

And, as an aside, who the hell is Charlotte Walsh?